A report may be downloaded at this link which includes a list of legislation enacted in 2016 that are of interest to law enforcement. The list is current as of May 25, 2016. The Governor has now acted on all bills passed by the legislature.

I am listing a lot of documents below containing what I have determined to be of interest to law enforcement to any degree. Not all of them will be of interest to you. You can pick the report that best suits your needs. Some reports are the same data, just sorted in different ways. Note the difference between "bills" and "topics." Bill reports are listing the actual bills by number or general categories. A bill may contain several topics. The reports titled as "Topic" reports are listing specific topics then listing the bills those topics have appeared in. In "Topic" reports, bill numbers may show up numerous times. Late in the session it is easier to follow things in the "Topic" reports since topics seem to be moved frequently from one bill number to another and sometimes appear in more than one active bill.

Topics in Conference Committee. NOTE: Topics are in conference only if they have been passed by at least one chamber AND the bill number they passed in has passed both chambers. Those bill numbers are officially in conference if the versions passed by each chamber is not identical. Those bill numbers may be used by the Conference Committee to move the bill forward in a "Conference Committee Report."

Thursday marked the end of the regular session of the 2016 Legislature. They will be back on April 27 to finish things up, including a lot of things still in conference committee. There is talk of wanting to have a very short veto session. I am not sure what that means since the normal veto is considered less than a week but they typically run from 3 days to 3 weeks. With the issues we are dealing with this year, the shorter the better. Unless the school finance issues flare up again or the budget deficit causes problems, I look for them to be in veto session about a week.

Key Legislative Events Week of March 21-25

SB367 Juvenile Justice Reform was agreed to by the conference committee with minimal changes from the way it came out of the House. It will now go to the Governor. See details on my Juvenile Justice Reform Page.

HB2549 Interstate Mutual Aid was passed by the Senate and is now awaiting action by the Governor.

SB489 Medical Hemp: There was a great deal of talk, strategizing, and rumors of activity this week. However, nothing of substance took place. They will still be able to work this during the veto session if they choose to do so. See more information on my Medical Marijuana Page.

SB428 Eyewitness Identification: The House failed to act on this bill this week. It will likely be taken up in the Judiciary Conference Committee during the veto session.

HB2553 CPOST funding: The House Judiciary Committee placed the provisions of HB2553 into SB22 and passed it out favorably. However, it was not acted on by the full House. There is talk about placing it into a bill in conference committee.

HB2550 and HB2555 CPOST KORA and deferred judgements: The House Judiciary Committee placed the contents of HB2550 and HB2555 into SB58 and recommended it favorably. On Thursday, the House leadership struck the bill from the calendar which kills the bill for this year. Since this topic did not pass either chamber, the topic cannot be taken up in conference and is also dead for this year.

HB2549 Interstate Mutual Aid: The bill was passed by the Senate and is awaiting action by the Governor.

HB2587 Prohibiting Sanctuary Policies: The House Judiciary Committee amended HB2587 by adding a provision for the AG to defend any lawsuits related to this bill and to reimburse any costs to the local agencies through the state reimbursement process. The bill passed committee by a very narrow vote. There was no action this week, making it even more unlikely to be passed this year.

There was discussion this week on the following topics indicating a desire to pass them this year:

The KHP and KLETC funding bills that are in the House Appropriations Committee. Solutions to these issues are being worked on.

SB18 KORA provisions for law enforcement video: We understand it may be put into a conference committee bill.

There has been no further action on Forfeiture related bills.

KPERS final average salary calculations: Rep. Lunn added a floor amendment to HB2724 to require local governments under KPERS to report all leave accruals to KPERS, but it does not change the final average salary calculations. The bill is now in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. It is not known if they will work on it or not. The Pensions Conference Committee will meet on April 27 and take up SB168, a bill on working after retirement. They will likely add HB2724 to that bill, it is unclear if they will include the Lunn amendment. They also will add the contents of HB2489 which is technical amendments to the KPERS laws. See more on my KPERS Page.

SB367 Juvenile Justice Reform: The House committee made several amendments to this bill, mostly in response to concerns by providers of local services, prosecutors and judges. The bill was debated in the full House on Friday, with no debate and little discussion. Final vote will be Monday morning. The bill will go to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House. I don’t expect major changes from the House version. See details on my Juvenile Justice Reform Page.

HB2549 Interstate Mutual Aid: A hearing was held in the Senate committee which recommended it to pass without amendment. It is scheduled for debate in the Senate on Monday.

SB489 Medical Hemp: The Senate committee made numerous amendments to SB489 then recommended it for passage. It will be placed on Senate General Orders. See more information on my Medical Marijuana Page.

SB428 Eyewitness Identification: The House committee held a hearing on SB428 and recommended it favorably for passage. The bill will require all law enforcement agencies to have a policy on the matter but does not dictate the details of that policy.

HB2553 CPOST funding: The House Judiciary Committee placed the provisions of HB2553 into SB22 and passed it out favorably.

HB2550 and HB2555 CPOST KORA and deferred judgements: The House Judiciary Committee placed the contents of HB2550 and HB2555 into SB58 and recommended it favorably.

HB2587 Prohibiting Sanctuary Policies: The House Judiciary Committee amended HB2587 by adding a provision for the AG to defend any lawsuits related to this bill and to reimburse any costs to the local agencies through the state reimbursement process. The bill passed committee by a very narrow vote.

There was no movement last week on:

The KHP and KLETC funding bills that are in the House Appropriations Committee.

The KORA provisions for law enforcement video, but we understand it may be put into a conference committee bill.

The Seat Belts Are For Everyone (SAFE) related seat belt bill is dead for this year.

Testimony was provided at a hearing in House Appropriations on HB2703, KHP funding; and SB335, KHP and KLETC funding. The committee took no action at this time.

House hearings on Juvenile Justice Reform began in the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee on Monday.

Testimony given in Senate Judiciary on HB2289 on DUI Admin Hearings. Hearing was continued from last week.

Hearing on HB2699, Forfeitures, scheduled for March 10 was cancelled.

Hearings were held on two bills, SB316 and HB2609, relating to the property tax lid. No committee action on either one yet.

A hearing was held in the House Transportation Committee on SB274 on seat belt fines and the SAFE program. No action by the committee yet.

Testimony was given in a hearing on HB2709 which would increase the KP&F death benefit to spouses of officers killed in the line of duty by granting them the greater of either the current 50% retirement or the retirement benefit based on the benefits had the member retired at the time of death. It also proposes increasing the cap with the children benefits added to 90%. No action by committee yet.

Testimony was given in Senate Federal and State Affairs on our firearms bill, SB479, which adds four federal prohibitions of firearms to state law. There was no opposition testimony and the committee recommended the bill to pass and it is now on the Senate calendar for debate.

Testimony was given in the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on SB489 on medical hemp. The testimony went well, but this committee seems likely to move this bill forward.

Testimony was given in the House Appropriations Committee opposing HB2725, KPERS Final Average Salary. The hearing went very well. We do not believe the bill has a high chance of moving forward.

The hearing on Wednesday on SB403, limiting revenue from traffic tickets by cities, went very well. There were no proponents, a handful of speaking opponents well mixed between law enforcement, courts, city administration, and recipients of the court fees the bill proposed to nearly eliminate. There was substantial written opposition and an appropriate law enforcement presence in the audience. The first opponent speaking, a representative from the Kansas League of Municipalities, got significant questioning from Sen. Melcher who stated he had an interest in the bill. Those questions were handled well. After that the chair held questions until the remainder of us had testified. There were no questions at the end of the testimony. There appeared to be no interest in moving the bill forward in any form by the end of the hearing, but we will need to wait and see if there are future developments.

We were notified HB2699, Rep. Rubin's forfeiture bill, will have a hearing on Thursday, March 10, at 3:30 PM. HB2699 leaves forfeiture as a civil action, but transfers 50% of the forfeiture proceeds remaining after paying the 15-20% to the prosecutor to a new fund under the attorney general for distribution back, through an unknown process, to any local law enforcement agency, even those that do not participate in forfeitures. The remainder (40-42.5%) stays with the law enforcement agency. The bill also removes the provision to allow using a private attorney for the forfeiture actions. The other forfeiture bill, HB2271, is dead now. However, it will most likely be brought up in testimony to gut HB2699 and replace it with the provisions of HB2271. HB2271 proposed to end civil forfeiture and allow forfeiture only after a criminal conviction. It also would have transferred all local forfeiture proceeds to the state general fund.

HB2689, DUI Admin Hearings, had a hearing in Senate Judiciary on Thursday. However, they did not complete the hearing with at least three of us testifying on Tuesday, March 8, when they take the bill up again.

This week there were two days of floor debate and action on bills. The following actions occurred on our key issues:

Forfeiture: HB2638 is now dead due to lack of movement out of the House by the deadline. This was the bill that ended civil forfeiture and transferred all forfeiture assets to the state general fund. HB2699 was exempted from the deadlines and remains active and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. This is the bill that retains civil forfeiture and transfers 50% of the assets to a special city and county law enforcement fund under the attorney general. It is unclear if this bill will get a hearing, but if it does we can expect an effort to replace the contents with the contents of HB2638.

KHP Funding: The KHP funding has become controversial, not based on whether there is a need for the funding but rather based on the source of the funding. In the Senate, the funding has been placed into SB335 along with the KLETC funding. That bill was passed by the Senate after extensive debate focused entirely on the KHP funding issue and not on the KLETC funding. The original bill was SB350 and it is no longer active. SB335 will now move to the House. Meanwhile, the House debated the KHP funding in HB2503. The debate went way off course with amendments to fund it through a different source. House leadership stopped the debate by transferring the bill to the House Appropriations committee where a hearing is scheduled for Friday, March 4.

KLETC Funding: The KLETC funding is in SB335 which was passed by the Senate. It now goes to the house. It has the KHP funding included in it now.

CPOST Funding and Other Issues: The issues of the open records and the deferred judgement from HB2550 and HB2555 were combined under HB2550 by the committee. However, the House leadership chose not to bring it to debate and the bill is now dead. The CPOST funding bill, HB2553, was passed favorably out of committee. Leadership did not allow it to proceed to debate but did exempt it from the deadlines and it remains active on the House General Orders.

Body Cam Open Records: SB18 (House Substitute) was not debated in the House but was exempted from deadlines so it remains alive and can still be acted on by the full House. We are not sure what the leadership's intends for the bill.

Mutual Aid: The mutual aid bill, HB2549, remains on House General Orders active and available for debate and action. We believe it will receive action fairly soon when they return.

Seat Belts and the SAFE Program: SB274 has been scheduled for a hearing on March 9 in the House Transportation Committee.

Juvenile Justice Reform, SB367, passed the Senate 38-2 and is expected to be assigned to the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. We are hearing it will have hearings on March 7 and 8, but nothing official yet.

Eyewitness Identification: The eyewitness ID bill, SB428, is on Senate General Orders and exempt from deadlines. Expect action on it quickly after turnaround. The bill was amended to only require law enforcement agencies to have a policy. There are still some discussions ongoing with the Innocence Project about refining the language.

Videotaping Interrogations, HB2593, is never left committee and is now dead. The committee chair intends to refer it to the Judicial Council for study and recommendation over the interim. SB429 never had a hearing and is also dead.

AG investigation of deaths caused by LEO: HB2678 had a hearing but was not approved by the committee and is dead. SB461 is exempt from deadlines and assigned to the Senate Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. No hearing is set.

Hemp and Marijuana: The agricultural hemp, HB2634, bill had no action in committee and is now dead. SB147, the medical hemp bill, is also dead after there was no action in the Senate. It is still subject to conference committee action in HB2049. However, it is highly unlikely the Senate will agree with it. HB2692, another medical marijuana bill did not get a hearing and is dead.

KPERS Final Average Salary Computations: HB2426 is still alive from last year. This topic has been discussed this year in two different committees. In both cases the committee has been told there are legal complications in moving forward and there has been no further movement.

The Senate Corrections Committee started working SB367, the Juvenile Justice Reform bill, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Several amendments were made and then deferred until later meetings to complete their work. Almost all of our recommendations were addressed to some degree with the amendments passed in committee on Monday. I have also placed a page on my website just on this bill. On it, you will find testimony and the bill amendment documents. The committee passed the bill out favorably on Wednesday after extensive amendments. The printed version of the bill with all the amendments probably was published on Friday.

The House Corrections Committee worked HB2593, Videotaping Interrogations, on Monday. Rep. Finch offered an amendment that amended the bill by removing all current contents and replacing it with a requirement for law enforcement agencies to have written policies on the topic. After significant discussion the amendment was approved 7-3. There was some concern with the amended bill not having some level of requirements in the policy, such as substantially complying with the model policy being developed by the KCDAA. A motion was then made to Table the bill, which also passed. So it will take a vote by the end of the day on Thursday to bring this bill up again this year. Of course the introduction of a similar bill through an exempt committee is always possible. The Chair announced his intent to refer this to the Judicial Council for study and recommendation.

The House Corrections Committee held a hearing on Tuesday on the Emergency Observation and Treatment bill, HB2639. Concern from opponents centered around the length of time a person could be held without court intervention. The Chair later announced his intent to send this bill t the Judicial Council for study and recommendation.

At the end of last week, another civil forfeiture bill, SB2699, was introduced. This bill would leave the forfeitures as civil actions, but take 50% of the forfeiture assets to be placed in a special law enforcement fund at the Attorney General’s Office. It is unclear what mechanism would be in place to distribute that back to law enforcement for local law enforcement purposes. But, to be clear, 50% of the assets would remain at the local level. This bill was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. No hearing has been set yet on this bill.

HB2549, on Law Enforcement Mutual Aid, was amended in the House Federal and State Committee on Tuesday, then passed out of committee favorably as amended. The amendment does not make a substantive change, it merely removes the word “foreign” and uses the words of the definition for “foreign” in the context of state law. That being from any state of the United States.

SB391, on sexting, was passed out of the Senate Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee with a minor amendment.

SB428, establishing policy in statute for eyewitness identification, was heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. We opposed the bill. The bill was amended with a substitute bill deleting all of the detailed policy provisions and creating a requirement for law enforcement agencies to have a policy on the matter.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Thursday on HB2678, requiring the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute any case involving death caused by law enforcement. Only opponents submitted testimony. It was a quick hearing and the bill will not move forward. However, SB461 on the same topic was introduced this week in an exempt committee and assigned to the Senate Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee.

KHP/KLETC funding issues: The Senate Transportation Committee combined SB350 on KHP funding and SB335 on KLETC funding into one bill under SB335. They changed the rate for the KLETC funding to $1.25 on the registration fee, but changed it to apply to all vehicles and not just passenger vehicles. This would net KLETC about the same dollars. The bill is scheduled for debate in the full Senate on Monday. Meanwhile, the House debated HB2503 which got bogged down in different ideas of how to fund it. The bill was amended to divert the source of the $2 to an existing registration fee. Mass confusion ensued and they referred the bill to House Appropriations Committee to restore order to it by considering some of the options being presented during the debate. This move also exempts the bill from the deadlines.

Author

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